Annual process begun: County budget requests said almost $1 million over

The path to decide next year’s county budget took another step Tuesday as county commissioners met for a 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. workshop to figure how to cut a projected $996,000 deficit in preparation to pass a balanced 2019 county budget by Dec. 31.

The local process began in the first week of August with each county department submitting an estimate for next year.

Since then, Gary Petrovich, county administrative director, put the figures together and presented a first round to commissioners in an Oct. 1 budget hearing.

On Monday, he presented part two, after another two weeks’ work.

Petrovich no...